Ride a few 26ers and ride a few 29ers in different variations, ie. rigid, front suspension, full. Then decide. You will find that dollar for dollar they are all the major brands are fairly similar component wise.
I've been mtb'ing since 1989 when I bought my first, Specialized Rock hopper, rigid, bent the fork on a jump and installed a Tange Switchblade. Since then I have owned: Mongoose somethig or other, Specialized S-Works M2 (Marzocchi front, full xtr), Moots Mootant (all custom stuff w/Marzocchi up front and a Fox at the rear), Rhygin Juke (Marzocchi front and a mix of XTR and other custom mixed and matched stuff) and my current rig is a Kona Hei-Hei 29 (Fox front and rear, mish mash of everything else).